Spanish Love Songs

Schmaltz

There are a couple of records making some serious rounds in the emo/punk scene right now as word of mouth continues to spread along. One of these is Spanish Love Songs' third album "Schmaltz", an indie-flavored pop punk record with an emotional twist that seems certain to push them towards the same career path as The Menzigers did starting from "Chamberlain Waits" onwards. It's an unpolished gem with charmingly glitchy production and perfectly timed gravelly vocals, mixing together coarse cries with melancholic cleans and hook-laden, anthemic choruses that feel like the perfect middle ground between old Menzingers and something like Iron Chic, Modern Baseball or Tiny Moving Parts.

In other words, Spanish Love Songs deliver precisely the sort of material that has been growing meteorically in the emo/punk scene for the past five or six years now and counting. It brings together intense, emotionally-charged lyricism with traditional quiet/loud dynamics where balladic songs expand into chant-along anthems, all of it wrapped in a delightfully melancholic tone that separates the expression from your dime-a-dozen summery pop punk band by giving it a more serious atmosphere overall. In that sense, parallels to The Wonder Years are also appropriate, since "Schmaltz" deals with a similar lyrical realm and a complex soundscape that allows quite a bit more depth than your average pop punk one does.

"Buffalo Buffalo" is a great example of what this album is all about. It's gritty and anthemic simultaneously, drawing equally much from balladic songwriting as it does from coarse, breaking vocals, resulting in an infectiously catchy song that feels raw, passionate and honesty-driven all the way through. It's an earnest sound that is only barely upbeat enough to warrant the punk label attached to it, servicing the mid-tempo sector brilliantly through its melancholic style. Later, "El Niño Considers His Failures" borrows some Motion City Soundtrack style keyboard effects to add flair to an already vivid, emotionally-charged expression.

But best of all, "Schmaltz" is incredibly consistent throughout. There are no bad songs on the album, just one banger of an emotional crooner after another. While the anthems are not quite yet at the level of The Menzingers in terms of how far-reaching and scene-wide captivating they are, we're getting really, really close with this one. My guess? Their next album will be a monumental breakthrough, because "Schmaltz" is already a scene classic for those in the know.